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'A Safety Case Report Format' proposes a format for a Safety Case Report to present a Safety Case in an understandable way, and is intended as a resource for those interested in the design of Safety Case Reports in any industry sector.
The report format is intended to be generically applicable, not specific to any regulatory regime or legislation. Whilst the authors hope that the book will interest industrialists and researchers from many countries, it is recognised that each reader works with their own perspectives, terminology, supply chain and legal or regulatory arrangements. A glossary and explanatory material in the ‘Background concepts’ section are provided to assist the reader to align their perspective with that in the book. However, the authors recognise that it will be necessary to tailor the content of the book for a specific application, industry sector or project, especially with respect to terminology, to suit its audience.
The book provides guidance on instantiating the format to reflect the circumstances of a specific project and its safety case.
The book is written for use by individuals with adequate competence in safety assurance and the subject of the safety case and so tutorial material is not provided on these subjects.
Motivation for writing the book
Motivation for writing the book
In many sectors where an organisation offers a service with safety implications, a safety case is produced to show that the service will be acceptably safe, to satisfy customer requirements, management procedures or applicable legal requirements. The size and complexity of a safety case, including all the supporting evidence, is usually such that it is not easy to deliver, access and comprehend. Consequently, it is common practice to produce a report that presents the key parts of the safety case, and which can be more easily delivered and comprehended. It is this ‘Safety Case Report’ that is the subject of the book.
In the absence of guidance, most Safety Case Report authors will make an intelligent ad hoc attempt to satisfy their expected audience, and as a result the report is likely to use the most readily available and presentable material. The report format offered in the book represents a more considered approach, developed to satisfy what is logically expected from a complete Safety Case Report. This was informed by the CAP 1801 method for assessing safety cases, which was previously defined by the authors. Having been developed from this comprehensive and generic basis, the report format should not only be useful in the absence of guidance, but may also suggest improvements to existing procedures and guidelines.
How the book accommodates multiple viewpoints of safety
How the book accommodates multiple viewpoints of safety
Safety cases are primarily required to argue about the safety of the services delivered by a system in its operational context. This may require some adjustment of perspective for those working to supply products to organisations that operate systems and so provide services. People who are used to discussing the safety of a product may at first find it novel that the book uses the perspective that it is the service(s) delivered by the product that must be shown to be safe. This perspective is taken because a product or system cannot cause harm until it is in some sense operational in a real-world context, and the context provides both the population that can be harmed and the means by which the harm is inflicted. When the safety case adds the context the book can be used to address the safety of a product or system. In the absence of the contextual information the format can be partly populated, which is of some value in itself, in that it reveals what is yet to be determined to properly demonstrate safety.
In some industries, the majority of the safety case addresses the prevention of local harm, whether those who could be harmed are employed or not, with the safe delivery of the actual output produced playing a lesser part. Protection against local harm is itself a service, and so has a natural fit within the Safety Case Report format given in the book.
When generic safety cases have to be produced for a product, rather than for the services provided using these products, the contents of the book may require customisation. However, the report format should still provide a sound basis for such safety case reports, and may suggest aspects not previously considered.
Whilst the book refers to safety (harm to humans) only, the report format in the book may also accommodate treatment of other types of harm.
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